1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in and modifications of the apparatus described in our prior application Ser. No. 425,231 filed Dec. 17th, 1973, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,858 granted Jan. 27, 1976 of which the present application is a continuation in part. In such prior application is disclosed a method and apparatus for the mixing together of foundry sand and binder to provide a mixture for making moulds and cores for use in casting operations.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The method and apparatus of the aforesaid application is particularly concerned with the provision of a mixture in which sand is mixed with a curable binder, which may be synthetic resin, and a catalyst which accelerates the curing and setting of the binder so as to speed up production of castings by cutting down on the time taken for the setting of moulds and cores, and the apparatus described is particularly designed for use with rapid cold setting binders wherein curing and setting of the mixture takes place very rapidly in the cold.
The apparatus disclosed in the aforesaid application comprises a pair of mixer and conveyor units, one for producing a sand/binder mixture and one for producing a sand/catalyst mixture, a final mixing chamber having a mixture discharge aperture at its lower end and having said mixer and conveyor units discharging into its upper end, a rotatably driven shaft extending downwardly and centrally through said final mixing chamber and sets of blades fixed to said shaft at spaced positions therealong some of said blades being mixer blades which are inclined so as to deflect material downwardly and some of said blades being deflector blades which are positioned in an upwardly inclined direction so as to deflect portions of the downwardly descending mixture in an upwards direction.